Special Issues

How Much Does Thornburg Pay In Taxes?

December 1, 2009, 12:00 am

By Corey Pein

Interesting tidbits keep turning up in the Thornburg Mortgage bankruptcy case, one of the largest in US history.

Court documents show that in October, the company, now known as TMST, had $24 million in the bank (or rather, banks—foremost among them being New Mexico Bank & Trust). That month alone, TMST made a gross profit of $2.2 million from servicing mortgages—and has made $19.9 million since filing for bankruptcy in May. After legal fees and "general and administrative" costs, TMST has netted $816,773 since the bankruptcy. Of course, all that belongs to its creditors.

The case is also shedding light on what kind of tax burden one of Santa Fe's largest private employers faces, or rather, doesn't.

Since filing for bankruptcy, the company has paid a $107,850 in combined state and federal taxes—or 13 percent of its net profit in that time. For comparison's sake, check out the federal income tax brackets. A married couple making the median income in Santa Fe is going to pay 15 percent. Such a couple is likely to pay property taxes, as well—unlike TMST, which pays no property taxes on its corporate HQ, thanks to a clever deal with the city of Santa Fe.

Click on the image below for a breakdown of TMST's tax payments.

Note that TMST, which laid off 130 workers in April and more since, has paid all of $973 in unemployment taxes in the months since its bankruptcy. Two years ago, Gov. Bill Richardson—who has received many thousands in campaign contributions from company founder Garrett Thornburg over the years—signed into law a bill that cut employer unemployment tax payments to the lowest rate allowed by federal law, saving corporations an estimated $26 million in 2008.

More on Thornburg after the cut.

Again, props to "Santa Fe Journal" editor Mark Oswald for keeping tabs on the Thornburg story, which Santa Fe's other daily paper seems unwilling or unable to do. He's got a story in today's paper (which you can't read online without a subscription) about those laptops and documents removed from company property by ex-CEO Larry Goldstone and ex-CFO Clay Simmons before they got the ax.

From Oswald's story:

A proposed stipulated order filed last week says Goldstone and Simmons now have agreed to deliver the laptops by Thursday to Thornburg Mortgage's Santa Fe offices on North Ridgetop Road and to not “alter or destroy any data or information” on the computers.

Goldstone and Simmons also will return the boxes of records, but with the stipulation that their attorney will keep documents that they contend “are protected from disclosure pursuant to the attorney-client, work product or other applicable privileges.”